Street Talk

IPO litmus test Splitit locks in Jan 29 listing date

By Sarah Thompson and Anthony MacdonaldIt would be too much to say the initial public offering market rests on the performance of a $54 million technology listing - but a good showing would certainly help sentiment and maybe keep the IPO window open.

Updated 23 Jan 2019 — 7:30 AM,first published at 12:15 AM

Point of sale payments business Splitit has conditional approval to hit the ASX-boards next week, making it the first new listing of 2019.

A number of funds are understood to have tipped into the $12 million IPO, perhaps pulled in by former Vocus Communications' founder James Spenceley as a key backer and ex-National Australia Bank head of institutional Spiro Pappas' role as chairman.

Street Talk.  Joe Armao

See Pappas, as the story goes, headed the team at NAB that onboarded Afterpay which has been a roaring success for early investors and is now worth more than $3.5 billion.

Splitit is similar but different to Afterpay. The company enables point of sale interest free instalment payments using a "hold'"on a consumer's existing credit card available balance to secure future payments.

It is not a lender and charges the merchant, rather than the consumer. And it would argue it operates within the already regulated realm of credit cards - and only enables credit card holders with spare capacity to manage their cash flow.

There'll be plenty of eyes on the "SPT" ticker, should the company list as planned on January 29. It comes as the IPO window threatens to close, thanks to market volatility and the fact investors had a rough ride with new listings in 2018, and particularly those that came late in the year.

Bankers have a bagful of floats they're hoping to take to fund managers later this year - but need market sentiment to improve. And a few wins - even if they're small ones like Splitit - could only help.